# DIY Wineador Rack/Drawer airflow



## MichiPuff (May 2, 2019)

Good afternoon! I have built racks for my Wineador out of Oak, and I am intending to turn these into drawers.

I use Boveda packs [I have around 20 of the 60 gram 65% packs in the 28 bottle Magic Chef wine cooler right now].

I am looking for opinions or ideas on how to build the sides for these racks in order to turn each tray into a drawer. I have two ideas:

1) Use a ripped oak board to put "rails" on the sides and the back of the trays [with a drawer face]
2) Use two ripped/pre-sized oak boards to put two rails on each side and back with a "peg" separating the two pieces in the corners

One of my worries is that flow around, and through the cigars might be hampered with a single wood board. Using two boards would be more work, not look quite as nice and might be unnecessary?

The gap between racks is roughly 3.5", and the racks are made as horizontal slats [not angled] so airflow/humidity exchange would move from top/bottom or bottom/top through the slats and around the racks.

I sketched out what i'm describing above [attached to post].

Thanks in advance!


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## Moonshae (Apr 26, 2018)

Rather than reinvent the wheel, why not take a look at the drawers for sale at wineadors.com...they have both slatted and solid faced versions, and decent pics for you to use as models.

Curious as to why you chose oak rather than cedar?


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## ebnash (Mar 5, 2017)

Moonshae said:


> Rather than reinvent the wheel, why not take a look at the drawers for sale at wineadors.com...they have both slatted and solid faced versions, and decent pics for you to use as models.
> 
> Curious as to why you chose oak rather than cedar?


I've ordered from Wineadors in the past while it is a superior product, you could be waiting 6 months to a year for delivery and he most likely won't respond to emails after he gets your money. I had to threaten turning it over to my credit card company, he delivered drawers in less than a week. That clown will never see anymore of my money.

I do agree that Spanish Cedar has the best humidor properties, not to be confused with cedar, it's not easily obtained in raw lumber.

The oak, which is a very dense hardwood will not provide the humidity buffer qualities, it also won't impart any strong smell into your cigars.


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## OneStrangeOne (Sep 10, 2016)

Your slated on the the bottom and open on the top I wouldn’t worry about slating the sides or back.


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## GunnyJ (Jun 22, 2018)

Not sure how high those side and back rails are going to be but you could cut out part of the bottom of them so they look like (Yes, I have mad computer art skillz! :grin2:


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## Cigary (Oct 19, 2007)

The nice thing about slotted trays whether it be cedar or even plastic.....as long as they aren't sealed the Whynter or NewAir is going to do its job and keep temps/RH where you want them. I set up another Whynter 251 for some overflow as I love how the last one works. I don't have to introduce anything but DW inside the plastic tray...didn't even bother to "season" the cedar trays inside as I'm just doing passive seasoning for the last week and guess what.....65% like I knew it would be. The aroma of cedar inside gives me my own "wood" and that is the ingredient that I want for transfer. The temp is rock solid at 66 degrees with barely a fluctuation of 1 degree temp. If I wanted to bump the RH up then I'd introduce 8 ounces of KL and spritz 5 times and know it would rise by 2%.... but 65% is my goal.

I am a solid believer in this Whynter 251....it truly is idiot-proof and no issues with condensation, leeching of water, etc, like some wineadors do where they seem to develop issues after a time and that's no f'n bueno for me. I finished filling up the new Whynter 251 and every time I open it....the magic of rock solid numbers and the cedar aroma just makes me wish for a bigger unit ....humidor wise....but the Credit Card would kick my a$$ so I guess 1000 cigars in these two units is fine....the other 2000 cigar are in their long term coolers also at 70/65. Guess as I smoke them down I'll manually transfer from the coolers to the Whynter.

As I am going through my inventory I am seeing cigars dated back to 2001 that are CC's and some NC's that are a decade old as well and they smoke really well....complex/full NC's can weather that kind of age. 

Does my fan run a lot.....I don't know and I don't care as long as the numbers agree and it might cost an extra 2 cents a day to run it and I'm not going to micro manage a fan to see how often it runs or do some overkill by running extra fans inside.....doesn't need it and this Whynter is packed full as I sit here sniffing the cedar aroma and tobacco.

I am getting rid of the Tuppers now....they did their job but with this Whynter Cigar Humidor......pièce de résistancej.....and a much better cedar transfer. When these go on "sale" for less than $250...get 2 of them as they work better than my $500 wood humis.


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## WNYTony (Feb 12, 2014)

I have a few shelves I made into trays by just gluing on some spanish cedar. I have one in a single height slot with 1" and one on top with 2" sides. You can see an example on my build thread - link is below. You can do one board and drill holes if you're concened about air flow but you should enough thru the slots in your bottoms and around the sides as I'm sure they won't be tight to the drawer above.

You should also look at beads or kitty litter unless you like recharging all of those Bovedas. It recovers faster and with beads in mine I have 5 Bovedas most of the year. In the winter when the ambient in my basement goes into the teens I get up to about 10 but I don't even know where I'd fit 20 of them !

https://www.cigarforums.net/forums/vb/cigar-accessory-discussion/238385-newair-setup-pic-heavy.html


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## Moonshae (Apr 26, 2018)

ebnash said:


> I've ordered from Wineadors in the past while it is a superior product, you could be waiting 6 months to a year for delivery and he most likely won't respond to emails after he gets your money. I had to threaten turning it over to my credit card company, he delivered drawers in less than a week. That clown will never see anymore of my money.
> 
> I do agree that Spanish Cedar has the best humidor properties, not to be confused with cedar, it's not easily obtained in raw lumber.
> 
> The oak, which is a very dense hardwood will not provide the humidity buffer qualities, it also won't impart any strong smell into your cigars.


I ordered some drawers from them and got them in 4 weeks, just this week. Not bad. But your point is taken. I didn't mean buy from there, just use them as models for your build rather than try to design something from scratch.

I do know Spanish cedar and cedar are different. Availability of raw lumber (or the lack of it) is a good reason to use something that won't impart an odor.


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## MichiPuff (May 2, 2019)

ebnash said:


> I've ordered from Wineadors in the past while it is a superior product, you could be waiting 6 months to a year for delivery and he most likely won't respond to emails after he gets your money. I had to threaten turning it over to my credit card company, he delivered drawers in less than a week. That clown will never see anymore of my money.
> 
> I do agree that Spanish Cedar has the best humidor properties, not to be confused with cedar, it's not easily obtained in raw lumber.
> 
> The oak, which is a very dense hardwood will not provide the humidity buffer qualities, it also won't impart any strong smell into your cigars.


Yeah, If I had easy access to Spanish Cedar and/or better quality tools to work with it, I would have gone with SC. With a Miter saw on the floor of my apartment [no clamps, no guides/fence etc.] I made these racks for a total of $28 using furniture grade oak. The oak as you said won't impart smells into my cigars. While I do enjoy the smell of a good Spanish Cedar humidor, I don't really care for it just for the sake of it. The oak is cheaper and easier to work with [no toxic dust].



OneStrangeOne said:


> Your slated on the the bottom and open on the top I wouldn't worry about slating the sides or back.


I had this thought as well, and was worried that even with the slatted bottom that once the drawers are full it might block airflow too much. I'm leaning towards solid sides/back as it will be much less work.



GunnyJ said:


> Not sure how high those side and back rails are going to be but you could cut out part of the bottom of them so they look like (Yes, I have mad computer art skillz! :grin2:


I envy the computer skills - I just sketched it on the back of a piece of paper at work 
That's a good idea, but I don't have any tools aside from a Miter saw, so i'm thinking I'll stick with one solid piece for the sides and back The plan is to utilize as much space as I can between the top of the rack and the rack above it so that I can [hopefully] stack 3+ high in each drawer.



Cigary said:


> The nice thing about slotted trays whether it be cedar or even plastic.....as long as they aren't sealed the Whynter or NewAir is going to do its job and keep temps/RH where you want them. I set up another Whynter 251 for some overflow as I love how the last one works. I don't have to introduce anything but DW inside the plastic tray...didn't even bother to "season" the cedar trays inside as I'm just doing passive seasoning for the last week and guess what.....65% like I knew it would be. The aroma of cedar inside gives me my own "wood" and that is the ingredient that I want for transfer. The temp is rock solid at 66 degrees with barely a fluctuation of 1 degree temp. If I wanted to bump the RH up then I'd introduce 8 ounces of KL and spritz 5 times and know it would rise by 2%.... but 65% is my goal.


Yeah I enjoy the Bovedas, and as I have 20 of them in there I'm expecting not to have to hassle with recharging very often [or simply replacing them]. I'd rather have the flexibility of taking the Boveda packs with me in a travel tupperdore or herfador to keep humidity while on the go. The packs recover pretty quickly once I close the door, and they keep the RH right at 65% according to the two sensors that I have.

I did look at the Whynter, but decided to go with the cheaper Magic Chef from Walmart at $140 for a 28 bottle fridge. [no wood racks/drawers included though]



WNYTony said:


> I have a few shelves I made into trays by just gluing on some spanish cedar. I have one in a single height slot with 1" and one on top with 2" sides. You can see an example on my build thread - link is below. You can do one board and drill holes if you're concened about air flow but you should enough thru the slots in your bottoms and around the sides as I'm sure they won't be tight to the drawer above.
> 
> You should also look at beads or kitty litter unless you like recharging all of those Bovedas. It recovers faster and with beads in mine I have 5 Bovedas most of the year. In the winter when the ambient in my basement goes into the teens I get up to about 10 but I don't even know where I'd fit 20 of them !
> 
> https://www.cigarforums.net/forums/vb/cigar-accessory-discussion/238385-newair-setup-pic-heavy.html


I did look into the beads and Kitty Litter but decided to go with the Boveda due to ease of use and flexibility in terms of being able to grab a pack for traveling etc. as I mentioned in the above response. I also am planning to make a "rack" or something like that to put the bovedas in underneath each rack [similar to the holder that they sell] but I just haven't decided how I want to go about it yet. Possible even making grooves/sections in a few of the racks on the inside [taking up a few rows of cigar space].


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## MichiPuff (May 2, 2019)

Moonshae said:


> I ordered some drawers from them and got them in 4 weeks, just this week. Not bad. But your point is taken. I didn't mean buy from there, just use them as models for your build rather than try to design something from scratch.
> 
> I do know Spanish cedar and cedar are different. Availability of raw lumber (or the lack of it) is a good reason to use something that won't impart an odor.


Yeah I looked at a few of the online vendors and the reviews were not comforting. They are also pretty expensive and i'm a DIY kind of guy [I enjoy this kind of project even if it doesn't look as professional]. I am a total of $28 in right now, and stand to spend around another $12-15 on the sides/back and another $10-20 for the drawer faces [haven't decided which route I want to go with those yet].

Couldn't [easily] get my hands on Spanish Cedar, and I don't have adequate ventilation and/or tools at the moment to work with SC or risk ruining the expensive wood. Contrarily I can grab another 8' piece of oak anytime for around $3-4 if I ruin something. :grin2:


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## WaxxonMTL (May 17, 2019)

Moonshae said:


> I ordered some drawers from them and got them in 4 weeks, just this week. Not bad. But your point is taken. I didn't mean buy from there, just use them as models for your build rather than try to design something from scratch.
> 
> I do know Spanish cedar and cedar are different. Availability of raw lumber (or the lack of it) is a good reason to use something that won't impart an odor.


Content withheld pending more investigation......


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## Bird-Dog (Oct 16, 2009)

WaxxonMTL said:


> this is the first positive review I heard from this guy in a while. I wanted to buy from him but decided against it after reading recent (ex: march 2019) (on another forum) bad review from him. I will need to convert some of my wynther shelve into drawer.


If it's a Whynter CHC-251s and you're just wanting extra drawers you can find them at https://ambientstores.com/cigar-drawer-for-chc-251s-bottom-slider/ .


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## WaxxonMTL (May 17, 2019)

curmudgeonista said:


> If it's a Whynter CHC-251s and you're just wanting extra drawers you can find them at https://ambientstores.com/cigar-drawer-for-chc-251s-bottom-slider/ .


it is currently out of stock. I found a local wood-worker. Hope to get soon so I can start seasoning  My opusX and ESG are anxious to try their new home lol!


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